Bill Miller, CSCS

New article is up! www.patreon.com/posts/120290...

“Why is my exit velo bad?”
The first thing I look at is how they’re testing it. The most likely culprit there is they’re hitting crummy, old baseballs.

Bar speed tracking with a VBT sensor can seem complex, but it’s really quite simple.
Measure performance with the same max effort reps you’d be doing anyway. With those metrics you can:
-monitor fatigue
-compete/keep intent high
-see consistent progress over time
-test output that’s not just 1RM

Tracking and increasing your training metrics is crucial for developing explosive power 🧨

Here are ways you can measure performance in training:
-Sprints w/ a laser timer or stopwatch
-Jump height or distance
-Med ball throw velocity or distance
-Overcoming isometrics w/ a crane scale
-Bar speeds

3. The same goes for the lead arm. Every 2 inches of wing span allows for ~1 mph of bat speed, given everything else is equal. The smaller guys I train with 100+ exit velocities ALL can throw the 2 lb ball 45+ mph.

Understanding how the body works from a physics perspective can help a lot!

2. Their torso speed needs to go roughly 100° faster than the bigger athletes.
Imagine attaching a bat to two objects- a pipe and a refrigerator. Imagine if you rotated that refrigerator, generating force into the bat would be much easier. The pipe would have to rotate faster to do the same job.

That being said, athletes who have a smaller pelvis, torso and arm size have to do a little more to achieve the same output.

1. Their pelvis needs to “spike”. When looking at it on a graph, this rapid deceleration allows energy transfer up the chain.

“How do small athletes produce big exit velo?”

No matter how big you are, the only part to the equation that *truly* matters is what happens with the barrel.

Barrel mass + barrel speed + how well the ball is struck on the barrel = how hard ball will be hit

The motion capture is the pinnacle of hitting assessments. Seeing every detail broken down has been a major unlock for all hitters that come through Driveline Baseball. Even hitters in Japan are getting assessed and seeing what flaws are preventing them from being the best 👀💀

Rate coding is the frequency (speed) at which we can activate motor units (fire bundles of muscle fibers)

Some claim this cannot be trained. They are incorrect!
EMG studies on martial artists shows the nervous system advances to training explosively.

Learn more 👇
www.patreon.com/posts/117933...

90 exit velo, 106 exit velo and 112 exit velo positions at contact

Motor unit recruitment = level of effort given each rep. That stuff matters!

Watch the full video here 👇
www.patreon.com/posts/117567...

Everyone wants big gains this off-season. Want to know the simplest, most straightforward way to do that?
Compete on every rep.

Improving swing speed is not rocket science. But it’s also a bit more complex than “just get strong bro lol” 😂

Developing explosive rotational power comes down to 3 things-
Maximal effort
Minimal fatigue
Execution

That said, it is important to have an idea of how to select an exercise and measure it properly.

Check out my rotational exercise index here: www.patreon.com/posts/116731...

Remember kiddos, bat speed matters

Creating a clean, on-plane path through the top of the zone is key to being adjustable and doing damage on ALL pitches.
Here's a progression using Driveline's skinny bat, machine smash trainer, and mini plyos at the top of the zone that will have your path squeaky clean 🫧🧽

Each session, every rep, push to PR by 0.1

Lastly, pros take care of themselves. The amount of high school kids I see get hurt is alarming. “I hurt my knee stretching” “I pulled my hammy running”
This is the prime of your life- take care of your body and it’ll take care of you!

…or continue eating cheetos and gatorade with 5 hours of sleep

The mindset and process is just different. I’ve had the privilege of training several high level pro/mlb hitters. They all can just go in and grind for a goal. No complaints, just quality work- it’s their job.
I see so many high school kids get derailed with one hard month of undesirable results.

“Do I need more mass?”
Potentially. More mass can *potentially* yield greater centrifugal forces displaced into the bat.
Imagine a refrigerator vs a toothpick spinning and attached to a bat.

BUT size isn’t everything (😏) it’s all about *FORCE* output. Fat ain’t it- be strong and explosive.

“Does bat size really matter?” 🦇
Yes. A standard 32 inch bat needs to be swung at nearly 80 mph to hit an 80 mph pitch over 100 mph EV. A 34 inch bat has much more mass in the barrel, allowing you to swing it 70-73 mph to achieve 100+ mph exit velocities.

It’s not easy, but swing a big boy bat.

“I’m just as strong as him, why does he hit the ball so much harder?”
⚡️Rate coding, or the rate at which a person can access motor units is crucial for developing force in a rapid movement like hitting
🧠 Myelination- Their pattern is extremely efficient, grooved with thousands upon thousands of reps

What do pro hitters do that amateur hitters don’t?

Here’s a thread on some of my thoughts and observations 💭

It’s November
If you wanna hit the ball harder in March, your work starts NOW

Rotational power without direction gets you nowhere fast!

Learn more www.patreon.com/posts/116480...

Accelerators- maximize explosive force production
Decelerators- maximize force absorption

Learn more here: www.lulu.com/shop/bill-mi...

Here’s how I train each segment of the kinetic chain for swing power 💥

Learn more: amzn.to/48Y7UCg